breastfeeding burns calories???

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emilee21
emilee21 Posts: 16
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,
I'm a new mom and I am doing cardio and calorie counting. I was wondering how many calories I am burning extra by breastfeeding. I've heard you burn like 500 calories but I do not exclusively breastfeed...I do both formula and breastfeed...so do I cut it down to 250??? I want to add this extra cardio to my workout area but wasn't sure...also what if I do not consume my goal calories per day...each day I am about 200-300 under what i should be eating...is this ok? please let me know because i want to lose but i also want to be healthy and want my baby to get all the nutrients he needs as well.
thanks,
emi

Replies

  • emilee21
    emilee21 Posts: 16
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    Hi,
    I'm a new mom and I am doing cardio and calorie counting. I was wondering how many calories I am burning extra by breastfeeding. I've heard you burn like 500 calories but I do not exclusively breastfeed...I do both formula and breastfeed...so do I cut it down to 250??? I want to add this extra cardio to my workout area but wasn't sure...also what if I do not consume my goal calories per day...each day I am about 200-300 under what i should be eating...is this ok? please let me know because i want to lose but i also want to be healthy and want my baby to get all the nutrients he needs as well.
    thanks,
    emi
  • PedalHound
    PedalHound Posts: 1,625 Member
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    Hi there! I'm a personal trainer with pre and postnatal specialization. Here's what I've got for you:

    Once you're not exclusively BF (I'm in the same boat - I have a very milk-happy 19 month old) your body is not using as many calories to make and maintain milk. (I usually consider perhaps between 100 and 150 cals a day personally. However there is no way to know exactly how much you're using. You can only estimate.) But also because you are only 6 weeks post-partum your body is not only making milk but still recovering physiologically from the birth AND replenishing energy stores on a cellular level from your entire pregnancy. You need a lot of nutrition!!

    But, you are NOT consuming enough calories right now. I notice you have only 15lbs to lose. This puts you in a category of people who should be aiming to lose only about half a pound per week since you are also nursing. You need to be setting your goals to about 1/2 lb per week and eating absolutely every single one of those cals. With a relatively small amount to lose and with breastfeeding, if you don't get all of those cals in you really do run the risk of sending your body into starvation mode in which case you will only gain fat and burn muscle. And you must also be aware that your body will be quite stubborn about giving up a little bit of excess body weight this close to having given birth. From a biological standpoint it wants to hang on to some "reserve" in case something happens like famine and you cannot feed yourself. Still food there for baby.

    Having 15lbs you want to shed after a pregnancy is a pretty "manageable" number to be dealing with. Good for you for wanting to keep healthy but you have to be very careful to balance this properly and eat enough. I very highly recommend having a chat with your Naturopath or Family Doctor about this.

    I hope this makes sense - I'm very tired right now! hahaha
    Ask any questions you need :wink:
  • TamTastic
    TamTastic Posts: 19,224 Member
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    Hey!

    PedalHound pretty much answered everything. I just wanted to add something. My friend has a 3 month old and is breast-feeding. She joined MFP and started lowering her calories (probably TOO much). She is exclusively breast-feeding.

    Anyway, she was finding that with eating too little, her milk started to diminish a bit. She wasn't eating enough of those breast-feeding calories or enough in general. She upped her calories and her milk came back.

    So, that is definitely something to keep in mind. I know you want to get the weight off. There will be time for that! :)

    Take care!
    -Tami
  • jamerz3294
    jamerz3294 Posts: 1,824 Member
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    Ironic post in that yesterday Ezzie and I were talking about the same exact topic! She was telling me that when she was breast feeding the sons, she could basically eat just about whatever she wanted, and stayed in great shape! If you think about how many calories there are in whole milk, and think about the calories that you also need to produce them, you might be surprised to discover that it takes a LOT of calories! So enjoy your new baby, and this time with him! Hugz :flowerforyou:
  • Ezzie
    Ezzie Posts: 665 Member
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    OK folks...here's the info I have....it's a bit on the historic side (1973) from Karen Pryor's book Nursing Your Baby, but it was my bible and full of good down to earth advice. Saved the book as it was/is such a good resource.

    Anyway....average amount of calories in breast milk is 25 per ounce....so figure a 4 ounce feeding is worth at least 100 calories...how many times a day?? 6 to 8 at first, so maybe 6-800 calories per day. Plus the fact that your body has to do the work to change food into milk....then as the baby grows, especially if you are exclusively breast feeding you can begin to figure the math. Whoohoo....those calories plus the exercise....time to go ENJOY eating those calories, knowing the good you're doing for yourself and your wonderful little one. ( Dang.....loved those days...but there's NO WAY:noway: I'm gonna have another....Jamerz and I figured combining our genes just wouldn't be good for this world:devil: :devil: )
    Ezzie
  • firegirlred
    firegirlred Posts: 674 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23285-calories-required
  • Ezzie
    Ezzie Posts: 665 Member
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    Wonderful advice...nice for folks to have someone who REALLY knows to turn to for advice. I was fortunate to have a local La Leche League to turn to. I'd urge any new Mom who wants to breast feed to see if there is a local group. Kind of like the amazing support that's available here!!:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

    Here's a link from the LLLI(nternational) that should help. I would definately urge you to check out their website...they've been in this business for 50 years!!!
    http://www.llli.org/FAQ/diet.html

    Ez

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